LCDR Andrew Boyd Cummings
Executive Officer, USS Richmond
Andrew Boyd Cummings was born on 22 June 1830 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On 7 April 1847, Cummings received an appointment as a midshipman.
Between 1847 and 1852, Cummings served as a midshipman aboard the USS Brandywine, USS Ohio and then USS Saratoga. He returned to the USNA in June of 1852 and graduated in June of 1853.
He was next attached to the USS Fulton and was promoted on 16 September 1855 to lieutenant. Next he was attached to the USS Dale on 15 April 1857 and would be detached from her on 23 May 1859 and granted three months leave.
His next and final command would be the USS Richmond. He was attached to her on 27 August 1860.
Cummings was promoted to lieutenant commander on 5 August 1862 and at some point was promoted to executive officer of the Richmond.
On 14 March 1863, Farragut's fleet sailed up the Mississippi River to pass Port Hudson, Louisiana. During the fight with the Confederates at Port Hudson, while Cummings stood on the Richmond's bridge, he was hit with a cannon shot that tore off his left leg. Upon advice of the ship's surgeon, Cummings was moved to the hospital in New Orleans, where he died of his injuries on 18 March 1863 at the age of thirty-two. He had been in the Navy for 15 years and left behind a wife and a three year old daughter.
On 22 March 1863, Captain James Alden made the following address to the officers and crew of the Richmond:
With deep sorrow I call you together to announce the death of our late executive officer, Lieutenant Commander A. B. Cummings, at New Orleans
It has pleased God to take from among us our gallant friend in fullness of his energies and usefulness. You all well know the importance of his services in this ship; his conscientious devotion to duty; his justice and even temper in maintaining discipline; his ability in preparing for emergencies, and his coolness in meeting them. All these qualities he brought to his country in the hour of need, and he has sealed his devotion with his life.
The fatal cannon shot struck him when he stood on the bridge cheering the men at the guns and directing their fire. He was thrown down upon the deck, but his presence of mind still remained. He said: "Quick, boys; pick me up; put a tourniquet on my leg; send my letters to my wife; tell them I fell in doing my duty." When below, he said to the surgeons, "If there are others worse hurt, attend to them first." "Nolan, are you here, too?" He enquired about "Howard," and his thoughts were directly of others and of success in the fight. When told that the noise he heard was from the escape of steam, and that the ship could no longer stem the current, he exclaimed, "I would rather lose the other leg than go back; can nothing be done? There is a south wind; where are the sails?"
Friends, the high object of our country in this war is "that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations." In this sacred cause has fallen the Christian gentleman whose death we now lament; in this cause have fallen all the brave men whose blood has stained these decks. We cannot do our duty better, but let us at least try to do it as well."
Interment
Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Section A, Lot 15-16
Dependents
Cornelia Reakirt Cummings (wife)
Virginia R. Cummings (daughter)
Awards and Memorials
References
[1] "Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion." Government Publishing Office, Washington D.C. 1905.